A friend brought E: D on Steam and wants to Bounty Hunt as a career, he asked me how best to do it. Sidewinders and Eagles are effective and fun, but assuming you want to aim for bigger and more capable ship and be good at fighting with it, here are a few thoughts. I don't think this is a super-quick way, but it worked for me. Hope it helps you.
You really need to earn around 15m credits bywhatever means (probably best get out of the Sidewinder and into a Hauler - many find trading boring but it is the quickest way to earn credits) Thrudd and Slopeys are good tools to work out trade routes. And rare goods are quickly profitable. Be aware that trading in Open will mean you could get pirated - so best keep away from the Lave Cluster if you can - or fly Solo or Mobius for trading.
Buy a Vulture (check the Elite Wiki for the stations that sell them)
Put the following equipment on it
2D/G Beam Laser
2D/G Cannon
0C KWS
0I Chaff
0I Point Defence
0C Shield Booster
4A Reactor
4A Thrusters
4C FSD
5A Power Distributor
4C Sensors
4A Shield Gen
4D Hull Reinforcement Package
2A Sheield Cell Bank
1D FSD Interdictor
1A Fuel Scoop
This will cost atotal of 12.43M Credits with rebuy of 621k (NEVER FLY WITHOUT SUFFICIENT INSURANCE - UNLESS YOU WANT TO END UP BACK IN A SIDEWINDER)
If you manage power properly with this setup, you will never run out of laser and never overheat,and you can kill pretty much anything with practice.
There are 100 roundsin the cannon, you really only need that for big ships (or to stop a mindless turning battle with a Sidewinder - hit him as he passes you and you will kill him shields or no)
Get Voice Attack -its $8!! this will give you voice control of any function you can assign to a key bind, and do macros and other great stuff.
Set up macros for power management in VA (search the forums, there are some great free config files)
My most used ones are:
Run Away' - 3 pips Shield & Engine each
'Attack' 4 pips weapons, 2 pips shields
'Engines' 4 pips engines 1 pip shields, 1 pip weapons
Also set up'Docking', 'Landing Gear', 'Chaff' etc.
Learn to set the power instinctively.
Bind Flight Assist toggle to a button on your HOTAS or easily reached keyboard.
Learn to turn using 'Flight Assist Off' If you nail it, you can out turn everything (except maybe a well flown Eagle)
Learn to boost turn (boost as you set your throttle in the blue zone and pull back on the stick.)
Make using your thrusters as instinctive as using the throttle. This is essential for staying behind big well flown ships like Pythons and Anacondas
Have Laser on button1 on Fire Group 1 and Cannon on button 2 (and also KWS on button 1 in case you don’t have time to do a separate scan)
Have KWS on button 1 of fire group 2 and Shield Cell on button 2
On big ships, always target the power-plant when attacking, when that is out, the ship is dead no matter how much hull it's got. If you are feeling sadistic you can take outjust the drives, and then kill him slowly - don’t wait too long to kill him as he could reboot his drives.
Keep firing to the end, you need the last shot to claim the bounty.
Go to a Nav Beaconin a high tech or rich system, scan everything there and KWS then kill anyone who is wanted. Cops will scan you, ignore them, but pirates will scan you too. Scan them back and then kill them. There are lulls when there are no wanted ships around, but be patient, use the time to make sure everything is in order, or to get back to close to the beacon or to pick upsome abandoned cargo or practice flight assist off with the Nav Beacon as reference point. Be ready though, Wings will sometimes arrive and attack you without ceremony. And even though they may show up as red on your HUD, you must let the scan complete before you fire back or you will get a bounty and all the cops etc will attack you.
For competent Wings or those with Pythons, Dropships etc. that come along, try and lead one away from the others and kill that first (go for the most agile ships first, get them out of the way) then go back for the big boys. Usually if you kill 1 or 2 of a wing, the rest will jump away - as soon as you see your target at 0% hull or Power-plant he is dead, pick the next hostile quickly and fire on him, boost after him aggressively and don't stop firing or you will lose him.
Dangerous and above ships will turn up, if they are big ships, let the plucky cops take the shields down before you bravely go in for the kill.
Do this and with one load-out of cannon ammo, you should be able to get 500k in bounties as Mostly Harmless or Novice.
If you want to rank up, always shoot the highest combat ranked ships (but they are good so be careful).
When you are ready, head to a Resource Extraction Site - they are in systems with extraction economies (you can search on the Galaxy Map for them) check the system and if there are planets with rings that are metallic, there will likely be RESs.
You should also go to conflict zones, the Combat Bonds you get from kills are not as lucrative as bounties, but it is more frenetic and fun, and you will learn more piloting skills. As there are usually many more enemies in a Conflict Zone. than 'wanted' pilots at a Nav Beacon or RES the total you get in Combat Bonds can be as high as well. There is little difference between High and Low Intensity Conflict Zones these days, but if the war includes the Federation, Alliance or Empire, a Capital Ship may turn up and that is great fun. To find Conflict Zones you should check large population systems with multiple stations where there is a boom economy, chances are it will slip into Civil War so check regularly. You can usually find current Conflict Zones mentioned on the forum.
No matter where you are, runaway if you lose shields (they take about 5 minutes to recharge with this load out) not much can catch you (an FDL maybe) or go into super-cruise - you will get new shields but may lose the instance you were in when you drop out.
Watch out for Commanders - especially ones with descent combat ranking - they are far less predictable than AI and have interesting load-outs and tactics, and many are awesome pilots. And often if you do manage to hurt them, their mates may turn up and melt you. Most play by the rules, but like all online games, there are a few psychopaths, griefers and gankers - and some of those are good pilots with very well armed ships, so be wary of any Commander - especially in anything other than a T6, T7, T9 and Hauler (although there have even been some of them equipped for fighting!)
When you are confident (say 200 kills) go to a RES site, then after another 200 you can try interdicting. Be ready though when you do that - 4 pips to shields until youhave the target in your cross-hairs.
You really need to earn around 15m credits bywhatever means (probably best get out of the Sidewinder and into a Hauler - many find trading boring but it is the quickest way to earn credits) Thrudd and Slopeys are good tools to work out trade routes. And rare goods are quickly profitable. Be aware that trading in Open will mean you could get pirated - so best keep away from the Lave Cluster if you can - or fly Solo or Mobius for trading.
Buy a Vulture (check the Elite Wiki for the stations that sell them)
Put the following equipment on it
2D/G Beam Laser
2D/G Cannon
0C KWS
0I Chaff
0I Point Defence
0C Shield Booster
4A Reactor
4A Thrusters
4C FSD
5A Power Distributor
4C Sensors
4A Shield Gen
4D Hull Reinforcement Package
2A Sheield Cell Bank
1D FSD Interdictor
1A Fuel Scoop
This will cost atotal of 12.43M Credits with rebuy of 621k (NEVER FLY WITHOUT SUFFICIENT INSURANCE - UNLESS YOU WANT TO END UP BACK IN A SIDEWINDER)
If you manage power properly with this setup, you will never run out of laser and never overheat,and you can kill pretty much anything with practice.
There are 100 roundsin the cannon, you really only need that for big ships (or to stop a mindless turning battle with a Sidewinder - hit him as he passes you and you will kill him shields or no)
Get Voice Attack -its $8!! this will give you voice control of any function you can assign to a key bind, and do macros and other great stuff.
Set up macros for power management in VA (search the forums, there are some great free config files)
My most used ones are:
Run Away' - 3 pips Shield & Engine each
'Attack' 4 pips weapons, 2 pips shields
'Engines' 4 pips engines 1 pip shields, 1 pip weapons
Also set up'Docking', 'Landing Gear', 'Chaff' etc.
Learn to set the power instinctively.
Bind Flight Assist toggle to a button on your HOTAS or easily reached keyboard.
Learn to turn using 'Flight Assist Off' If you nail it, you can out turn everything (except maybe a well flown Eagle)
Learn to boost turn (boost as you set your throttle in the blue zone and pull back on the stick.)
Make using your thrusters as instinctive as using the throttle. This is essential for staying behind big well flown ships like Pythons and Anacondas
Have Laser on button1 on Fire Group 1 and Cannon on button 2 (and also KWS on button 1 in case you don’t have time to do a separate scan)
Have KWS on button 1 of fire group 2 and Shield Cell on button 2
On big ships, always target the power-plant when attacking, when that is out, the ship is dead no matter how much hull it's got. If you are feeling sadistic you can take outjust the drives, and then kill him slowly - don’t wait too long to kill him as he could reboot his drives.
Keep firing to the end, you need the last shot to claim the bounty.
Go to a Nav Beaconin a high tech or rich system, scan everything there and KWS then kill anyone who is wanted. Cops will scan you, ignore them, but pirates will scan you too. Scan them back and then kill them. There are lulls when there are no wanted ships around, but be patient, use the time to make sure everything is in order, or to get back to close to the beacon or to pick upsome abandoned cargo or practice flight assist off with the Nav Beacon as reference point. Be ready though, Wings will sometimes arrive and attack you without ceremony. And even though they may show up as red on your HUD, you must let the scan complete before you fire back or you will get a bounty and all the cops etc will attack you.
For competent Wings or those with Pythons, Dropships etc. that come along, try and lead one away from the others and kill that first (go for the most agile ships first, get them out of the way) then go back for the big boys. Usually if you kill 1 or 2 of a wing, the rest will jump away - as soon as you see your target at 0% hull or Power-plant he is dead, pick the next hostile quickly and fire on him, boost after him aggressively and don't stop firing or you will lose him.
Dangerous and above ships will turn up, if they are big ships, let the plucky cops take the shields down before you bravely go in for the kill.
Do this and with one load-out of cannon ammo, you should be able to get 500k in bounties as Mostly Harmless or Novice.
If you want to rank up, always shoot the highest combat ranked ships (but they are good so be careful).
When you are ready, head to a Resource Extraction Site - they are in systems with extraction economies (you can search on the Galaxy Map for them) check the system and if there are planets with rings that are metallic, there will likely be RESs.
You should also go to conflict zones, the Combat Bonds you get from kills are not as lucrative as bounties, but it is more frenetic and fun, and you will learn more piloting skills. As there are usually many more enemies in a Conflict Zone. than 'wanted' pilots at a Nav Beacon or RES the total you get in Combat Bonds can be as high as well. There is little difference between High and Low Intensity Conflict Zones these days, but if the war includes the Federation, Alliance or Empire, a Capital Ship may turn up and that is great fun. To find Conflict Zones you should check large population systems with multiple stations where there is a boom economy, chances are it will slip into Civil War so check regularly. You can usually find current Conflict Zones mentioned on the forum.
No matter where you are, runaway if you lose shields (they take about 5 minutes to recharge with this load out) not much can catch you (an FDL maybe) or go into super-cruise - you will get new shields but may lose the instance you were in when you drop out.
Watch out for Commanders - especially ones with descent combat ranking - they are far less predictable than AI and have interesting load-outs and tactics, and many are awesome pilots. And often if you do manage to hurt them, their mates may turn up and melt you. Most play by the rules, but like all online games, there are a few psychopaths, griefers and gankers - and some of those are good pilots with very well armed ships, so be wary of any Commander - especially in anything other than a T6, T7, T9 and Hauler (although there have even been some of them equipped for fighting!)
When you are confident (say 200 kills) go to a RES site, then after another 200 you can try interdicting. Be ready though when you do that - 4 pips to shields until youhave the target in your cross-hairs.